The present invention is directed to smoke evacuation apparatus, and more particularly to an improved system for use in the collection of smoke and other airborne debris generated in the course of electrosurgery and laser surgery.
Electrosurgery and laser surgery are found in more widespread use, and particularly in many types of dermatologic surgery procedures. As is well known to those skilled in the art, electrosurgery may involve the use of electrically heated needles which may be used to burn tissue from the surgical site or may involve electrodesiccation and fulguration procedures in which an electric arc is generated between a needle and surgical site.
By the same token, laser surgery is likewise gaining widespread acceptance in procedures in which a laser is used to burn and/or vaporize tissue from a surgical site. Such laser surgical techniques are becoming more widely used in a variety of dermatologic surgery operations. In both electrosurgery and laser procedures, the surgical techniques employed generate a great deal of smoke and other airborne particulate matter in the vicinity of the surgical site. Because such particulate matter itself may be pathogenic, smoke evacuation techniques have been developed to physically remove the smoke and other surgical debris from the surgical site.
A number of smoke evacuators have been developed for that purpose. One particularly successful example is the smoke evacuator described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,779 to Charles R. Yeh. While smoke evacuators like that described in the foregoing patent have received widespread acceptance, they may nonetheless operate at less than maximum efficiency in the collection and removal from the surgical site of smoke and surgical debris. One of the reasons that smoke evacuator techniques heretofore used have not been optimally efficient is because the nozzle of the smoke evacuator, in most applications, must be located within approximately two inches of the surgical site.
Otherwise, there is a risk that substantial portions of the smoke and debris thus generated may dissipate into the atmosphere from the surgical site, posing health hazards to health care workers. Indeed, such electrosurgery and laser surgery techniques, because they tend to disburse blood into an aerosol, leave behind such aerosols which can pose a health risk to anyone entering the theater of the surgical operation, even several hours after the surgery has been completed. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, such surgical debris, including the blood aerosols above referred to, may contain pathogenic organisms, and particularly viruses. It is important that such debris be collected and removed from the environment as completely as possible.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide improved apparatus for collecting and removing, with maximum efficiency, smoke and other surgical debris generated as a result of electrosurgical and laser surgical techniques.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide apparatus for the collection and removal of smoke and surgical debris in which substantially all of the smoke and surgical debris can be collected and removed from the environment.
It is a more specific object of the invention to provide apparatus for the collection and removal of smoke and surgical debris which can be used to efficiently collect such smoke and debris when used in combination with electrosurgery and laser surgery instruments.
These and other objections and advantages of the invention will appear more fully hereinafter with a description of the present invention.